PS3 firmware adds HD audio

If you like watching Blu-ray Discs on your PlayStation 3, then things are about to get better. Sony has announced a firmware update that’ll give film fans the option to use another HD audio format.

Firmware version 2.30 will be released on 15 April and will enable the console to support DTS-HD Master Audio. This enables the HD video seen on screen to be matched with equally high quality sound.

Dolby’s TrueHD, which the PS3 already supports, is more common than DTS-HD. However, Sony’s firmware update will at least give consumers the option to choose which sound set-up they want to use.

Teen pregnancy flick Juno, which is released on Blu-ray in the US on 15 April, will support DTS-HD Master Audio with up to 5.1-channel surround sound. However, the audio format can support 7.1-channel sound.

DTS itself claims that DTS-HD Master Audio is capable of delivering audio that is "bit-for-bit identical to the studio master" at up to 24.5Mb/s on Blu-ray, with the audio encoded using 24-bit quantisation at 96kHz.